after many different attempts at making the binary pre-fabs work, we came to a conclusion that something in them causes a performance drag on the server, manifesting as mystery lag spikes & excessive skipping. 0.8.1 release binary seemed to be quite good, but the autobuilds leading up to 0.8.2 ranged in quality from ok to awful, and 0.8.2 release binary was quite bad.

so we tried building from git, and the quality seems to have improved. it was quite nice to see that the build instructions work flawlessly on both stable debian (server) and a slackware derivative (client).

both servers will run post-release git for now, while the testing continues.

we are immensely exited to announce an upcoming hardware update. just around march 26 we will be moving hightime to a 4-core blade with 6x or so bogomips. there may be some downtime (perhaps up to a few days, but hopefully none at all), and the ip address may change during the transition, but everything else is expected to remain as it is.

if you tried hightime before, you may have noticed occasional lag spikes. after much testing we concluded that the bottleneck is none other that the chipset, with 2 chokey cores falling short of the task at hand. with this update we are hoping to deliver the silky-smooth gameplay we always envisioned.

understood, no biggie. 4got to mention... we discovered the issue a few months ago by accident, with old setup, never reported because were hoping it would just go away ™ but it didn't. it persisted happily through the upgrade, even though we bumped the os (debian stretch now) and replaced autobiuild server with stable universal blob again.

every now and then, a release arrives to the scene that is both momentously epic and serendipitously timely.

first there was greg kuperberg's paratrooper.

then there was blizzard north's diablo ii.

then, for a long time, nothing happened.

until today.

hightime is proud to introduce a move in a bold new direction. we are relaxing our long-standing built-ins-only policy, and going all out to hunt for awesome new maps. a current version of this list will soon be moved to the first post. please help us by figuring out map authors so that we can credit them properly.

hightime select

252aggressor by fruitiex is a faithful remake of the dynamic oa mushpit, great for duels and up.

tuhma by smilecythea is a fun cozy map with hilarious textures, a bit unforgiving when it comes to free space, but cleverly tangled. it features risque themes, and is mildly offensive to crylink fans (crylink itself not included).

above is a fantastic beauty suspended over a gorgeous sunset in the upper stratosphere. this mid-sized futuristic platform will push you to be alert at all times, and you will find that it's much easier to go down than up.

dmp14_q3 is large, wide open, and full of that windy breezy feeling. this map is an absolute riot for anyone who likes to move in all 3 dimensions and rain the justice from up high. the balance is superb: the line of sight is deftly splintered by force fields, and the only vortex on this map is the massive cyclone beneath.

spacecamp_ql is a deviously scrambled timeless classic, furnished with all the standard weapons, even the crylink, for those lucky enough to discover its secret.

arte de cortez

castle-beta2 is a craftful and inspired remake of yago's castle (outside). cortez adds much-needed depth and flourish to an already well balanced classic ctf arena. though still in beta, this map has the promise of a masterpiece.

downer_final_r1 is a beautifully laid out 3d labyrinth that makes you feel anything but claustrophobic.

phrantic is a duel-sized compound with clean lines and the layout executed to perfection. the deceptively simple design creates a deep feeling and an amazing, instantly recognizable atmosphere seemingly out of nothing.

the_yard is the longest yard remake 2 kill 4, enough said.

enter the debugger

breath_b7 features flawless layout combined with spot-on texturing and simple yet refreshingly cute interior design. taken together, these qualities put this compact map at the very top of any ffa list.

under review

windsongkeep_q3 by phantazm11 is a castle. everyone likes castles, and who can say no to virtual blood splatter over color-stained mosaic windows? and yet we are cautiously noncommittal because of the subtle redundancy in the layout, with similar passages and rooms dulling the sense of direction.

terminus_q3 by frs is a large map with dark, moody rooms and an intricate spiderweb of passages spanning all 3 dimensions. our only reservation is the sheer size of this dungeon.

here are some xonotic wallpapers we would like to share with the community. we are planning on expanding this collection with more glamor shots of the featured maps. we cut 16:9 by default, but will cut other aspects by request, so let us know

it has now been just over 2 years since tiny neon lights started blinking in a cold room in a pennsylvania colo, and hightime was born. and now hightime needs you.

we are currently looking for admins to keep the server warm around the clock. our in situ recruiting efforts are stymied by our schedule, which allows us to be around when darkness falls in otherwise sunny california, between 9 and 12 or so, with only a few unpredictable exceptions. hopefully, this post will allow us to expand our search beyond the short list of usual suspects (you know who you are!). if you are digging this, please drop by and hang out. forum feedback is also welcome.

here's everything a hightime admin would need to know:

hightime mantra (apply whever in crisis)

if you choose to do nothing, you are doing your job.

hightime code (apply all the time)

responsibilities: none

powers: rcon

never stiffle free expression,

which includes statements of offensive

and politically incorrect opinions,

among other things.

never be rude

(which is not the same as being offensive).

never share ips or any other private gamer info

with anyone except for the hightime management,

to the extent the law permits.

never kick or ban people or bots for any reason

other than causing server instability.

admin guide (apply when pigs fly)

this is a collection of administration tips for those who actually decide to be productive (why??)

status shows gamers, ips, and ids

tell can be used to whisper to a specific id

quit kills the xonotic server, and is the preferred way to fix stability issues such as server lag. the os will cold boot xonotic server after several seconds, so it works like a restart, but more thorough.

lsmaps shows loaded maps

changelevel is a neat way of switching to a specific map without causing gamers to drop out

seta will change and archive the settings, and the changes will persist through reboots. using it is ill-advised: only the management can one-click restore screwed-up settings to git values.

everything in this report is observed with official pre-fab binary running on debian stretch.

issue 1: intermittent server list skips

for a few months now we've observed a truly puzzling behavior, whereas our servers fail to show up in the server list in-game. or rather, they show up whenever they feel like, and we can't replicate, or even figure out if it's server-side or a client-side issue. they go in and out of the list pretty often, like every half hour or so, and sometimes what "fixes" it is restarting servers, sometimes it's restarting our local router. this never seems to happen to other faves of ours, like bfg's or ug's or whatever other servers we use to frag the lot of you.

all this time, the servers are up and humming, and anyone can connect directly by ip.

issue 2: server jams

after being up for a few days, the ffa server starts spiking 4-second-or so lags at regular intervals, like may be every 20 minutes or so. restarting the server fixes the issue, so this is not something we will lose sleep over.

solutions, give me solutions!

we are currently building a git version for the gib server, and will test that for a while. while at it, we are adding more instagib ammo (12/6 instead of the austere 6/3 we used to have). happy fragging

ps: instagib is on git head now, and it seems to work, so we are porting ffa within a few hours. hopefully that + wiping all files & settings will improve things.

since the upgrade to git we haven't seen the weird behavior with our git clients, but we got a couple of reports from people running stable pre-fab: they could not see hightime in the in-game list. we also got some reports from people running post-stable autobuild: they could see both servers, sometimes doubled up (we've seen this before as ipv4/ipv6, but we don't see that lately).

this issue may or may not be related to the problem our xonotic server shares with oa: they won't show up in the deathmask lists, presumably being "unresponsive", but they do show up in individual deathmask pages, if looked up by ip.

as far as we can tell, we have no firewall anywhere near us. our iptables policy looks like this:

and yet there's a feeling that incoming queries fail sometimes. once again, there are no known issues with server connectivity. oa servers show up in the oa in-game server list without fail. and xonotic servers do show up in the in-game server list at least sometimes, and now pretty much all the time since the yesterday's bump to git head.

if you would like to help us, we would super-appreciate that. simply filter the server list by hightime and let us know whether you can see us. also, please let us know whether you are running stable or autobuild/git client.